


Relapse

by LittleLinor



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Gen, M/M, awkward pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 12:50:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13190457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: Ibuki goes back to his bad habits (almost)Based on episode 12





	Relapse

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tachycardia](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13167471) by [LittleLinor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor). 



> A more silly followup to the previous fic.  
> I tried my best to make Chrono and Kazuma act like they're actually genuinely friends bc BOY the show doesn't make a good job of making it believable. (hello, next, it's possible to banter without being rude or mean to each other and without ignoring each other's boundaries, thanks)

On the first day of class after winter break, Chrono finds an envelope in his school locker.  
_Oh, again_ , he first thinks, picking it up and getting his shoes, before his brain catches up and he freezes and stares. _Wait, **again?!**_  
It's been two years already—almost three, since Ibuki last tried to leave something in his locker and got caught. And he hasn't a single time since. But sure enough, it's the same kind of envelope, and the same handwriting that he could tell anywhere by now, although it seems neater than usual, as if Ibuki had written the name with great care.  
He presses his forehead against the lockers with a sigh, swiches his shoes, and prepares to get out of school when a voice stops him.  
“Chrono? You okay?”  
Kazuma.  
“Oh. Yeah, I'm fine.”  
“Did something happen?”  
“… do you ever, like. Have something happen that feels like it's _got_ to have a logic behind it but you're the only one in the universe who doesn't get it?”  
“You mean: everything that happened since last spring?”  
“… good point.” He sighs. “It's nothing bad, just…”  
Kazuma eyes him in silence, one eyebrow slightly raised, and he slaps himself mentally. Kazuma's been dragged into too much shit now for everything that happened during and before Ryuzu's attempted takeover to be relevant. There's no point in keeping it silent.  
“… listen, I'll tell you about it, but promise me one thing first.”  
“What?”  
“Don't… let it shape your opinion of the person I'm gonna talk about. A lot of things have changed since then. And—don't make fun of him or tease him about it.”  
“Is it _that_ bad? Also, you gave some of it away with that 'him',” he adds with a slight smirk.  
“… shit.”  
Kazuma chuckles.  
“Yeah, fine. Why would I make fun of someone anyway.”  
“Well, _sometimes_ ,” Chrono teases back.  
“Yeah, well. I'm not trying hard to be an asshole anymore,” Kazuma mutters.  
Chrono grins.  
“It looks better on you anyway.”  
“Wh—what's that supposed to mean?”  
“Nothing. C'mon, let's get going, we can talk about this outside.  
Better not have _that_ talk and phonecall within earshot of too many of his classmates.

“Okay, so.” They're sitting on a bench near the river with some drinks, and Chrono's already questioning his choice, because _that_ brings memories too. “Kouji Ibuki.”  
Kazuma blinks.  
“That guy?”  
“I know you haven't talked to him much… but we're… kind of close? Although we don't see each other much these days,” he adds, trying not to sulk about it. Honestly the fact that Ibuki keeps distancing himself from people as soon as they don't actively pull at him is something that worries him.  
Kazuma snorts.  
“Duh.”  
“Huh?”  
“I'm not blind, Chrono.”  
“… what's _that_ supposed to mean?”  
“Nothing,” Kazuma replies with an innocent face, and Chrono buries his face in his knees, groaning.  
He did kind of have that one coming.  
Kazuma pats his back, chuckling.  
“Tell me the story.”  
“Augh. _Anyway._ We kind of had a rough start—it's complicated. But early on—instead of talking to me directly, he used to leave me stuff. In my school locker, on my bike—he even ordered delivery for me once and had the delivery guy hand out the letter for him.”  
Kazuma just stares.  
“… he knew where you lived and everything?”  
“Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if he knew my food allergies. If I have any.”  
Kazuma snorts, and it makes Chrono smile a bit, but he's still frowning.  
“Sounds a lot like stalking if you ask me.”  
“Well, it was. But that was years ago. I caught him red-handed, we had a—ah—'talk' about it—it's kinda funny in retrospect—and he stopped completely. And we were talking properly and regularly not long after that, so it's not like he needed to be sneaky anymore anyway. And… he had his reasons.”  
“'f you say so. So why's that relevant now?”  
Silently, Chrono pulls out the envelope from his bag.  
“What's—oh, that from him?”  
“Yeah.”  
“You can tell just by the handwriting? It's not signed, right?” he asks, twisting his neck to catch a glimpse of the other side.  
“Yeah it's not. And yes I can. It's the exact same kind of envelope too, so it's not hard to figure out.”  
“So he's stalking you again? Why?”  
“I don't know if it's that—and _that_ 's what I'm trying to figure out. I saw him just a few days ago! What gives?”  
“Maybe he's just too shy to give it to you in person,” Kazuma says with a smirk.  
“… I could buy the shy part, but he's much too straightforward for that.”  
“Well, what's inside it? Maybe that'll help.”  
Chrono stares at the envelope.  
“… I'll open it at home.”  
“Huh? Why not now?”  
“I… it doesn't feel right, okay?”  
Kazuma eyes him, then smirks.  
“Oh I see how it is.”  
“What?”  
“Nothing. Why don't you ask him directly, then? No better way to know, right?”  
“That's what I was gonna do in the first place! But I just wanted to… understand, I guess.”  
“Just call him,” Kazuma says, standing and patting his shoulder. “Thanks for the drink.”  
“What, you're leaving?”  
“I got stuff to do. Good luck!”  
He leaves before Chrono can try to convince him otherwise, and Chrono almost hides his face again. Of _course_ he has to call him now; having someone with him was stopping him, but that was probably an excuse.  
And Kazuma knew it, of course.  
(He definitely owes him another drink after this, for stopping him from being an idiot)  
He takes a deep breath. Downs the rest of his coffee. Takes another deep breath. And pulls his phone from his pocket.

“Yes?” the familiarly brusque answer comes the moment Ibuki picks up his line.  
“Ibuki.”  
There's a pause. Chrono waits—had that been a little indrawn breath? Did he imagine it, or was it just a phone artifact, or—  
“… yes?” Ibuki answers again, slightly more quietly this time, a little hesitant. Maybe he actually caught on to his deadpan tone.  
Chrono leans back against the bench.  
“… so is there a reason you're suddenly leaving stuff in my locker _again_?”  
“I wasn't stalking,” Ibuki declares immediately, blunt but hurried almost like a kid defending himself in a situation that looks stacked against him, and Chrono almost chuckles fondly—damnit, it's not the time. “I met Okazaki at the Dragon Empire Branch during the weekend; I asked her to deliver it for me. I didn't go to your school.”  
“Wait, the locker was her idea?”  
He wouldn't put it past Kumi, honestly.  
“… no, it was mine,” Ibuki answers, and Chrono can't tell whether his quiet voice is sheepish or… something else.  
“… okay then,” he says, a bit more gently this time because something does seem to be up, here, “that brings us back to my first question. Why did you get that envelope in my locker again? We have each other's number; you could've given it to me anytime!”  
He doesn't add _or you could've told Kumi to give it directly_. Maybe it's a bit selfish, but he'd rather not give him _more_ ways to avoid seeing him face to face than he already has.  
The silence flows in front of him like the river itself. And then, after a few more seconds, Ibuki answers, quiet and intensely earnest.  
“You said it had been a long time since I got you a present.”  
Chrono blinks.  
“Huh?”  
“I thought… that you meant it would make you happy to receive more.”  
For about the third time in half as many hours, Chrono wants to hide his face in some other part of his body.  
What _is_ it with that guy, that almost every time his originally exasperating actions or quirks turn out to be _adorable_ once you know his real intentions and the feelings behind them? He's going to be the death of him one day.  
Trying not to linger on the implication that he does fully expect Ibuki to stay in his life long and stably enough to cause said death, he clears his throat and tries to put a sentence together.  
“I—of _course_ it'd make me happy, but I'd be happy to see _you_ in person too, you know?” That wasn't exactly what he'd meant to say, but he forces himself to continue despite the heat taking over his face. “And that way you don't have to drag someone else into it!”  
Which is still much more openly affectionate than he'd planned, but. It's Ibuki. Maybe he _needs_ that level of bluntness.  
Whether he needed it or not, it sure seems to have hit home one way or another, because what follows is a long stretch of awkward silence that gives Chrono plenty of time to feel his face cook in its own heat.  
“… did you open it?” Ibuki finally asks, out of the blue.  
“Huh? Oh—not yet. Sorry—stuff happened and then I wanted to talk to you and…” He trails off. “… I'll open it. Hang on.”  
He puts the phone down to reach for the envelope and open it, grabbing the phone back as he slides a single card out.  
“… a new G guard?”  
“Gyze's followers keep separating and isolating us to fight us,” Ibuki explains. “I thought it could protect you, even if you can't be reached in person…”  
_Even if I can't reach you in person to do it myself_ , is what Chrono knows he means, and he has to take a second to breathe before answering.  
“… thank you. I'll take good care of it.”  
“Mmm.”  
Silence, again. Why are neither of them good at this whole 'small talk' thing? Or even just 'carrying conversations'?  
“We can still see each other if you want.”  
It's so out of the blue and so honestly shocking that he almost misses it. But when the words reach his brain, his heart jumps around in his chest enough that he thinks he might have tangled some vessels in there.  
“O-oh. Really?”  
“I'm supposed to meet up with Sendou and Kai after work… you'd be welcome to join. Katsuragi will be there too,” he adds.  
“I don't want to impose…”  
“You're a precious friend and ally. You wouldn't be imposing.”  
Chrono smiles. Maybe the embarrassment is worth it just to hear those words.  
“What time?”


End file.
